Kate

A twenty-five year old woman has that rare opportunity to start over. This is a short intro to a project I've been toying with for a while. Your opinions are cherished. :)

      It was a night that the moon was bright enough to outshine the stars. I lay on the tattered quilt outside my mother’s old home and traced the constellations with my eyes. I remembered the clear summer nights that my father would pull me outside to star-gaze until Mom made me go to bed. I knew every constellation. Every star has a name, you know. Dad’s favorites were the Big and Little Dippers. I was particularly fond of Orion.

      That night, though, I was alone. It wasn’t unexpected. Mom had been sick for a long time. At least now, she could rest. I wouldn’t cry anymore. I cried while she was sick. I cried because she hurt. I cried because she was such an amazing woman; so strong, so selfless. Seeing her frail and suffering made me cry. The day she died, she made me promise I wouldn’t cry for her. I couldn’t break the last promise I made to the woman who’d committed her life to loving me.

      As I lay there, the quilt getting soggy from the midnight dew, I was comforted by the moon. It was as though I had a guardian angel in that big ball of white that hung in the sky. I was now alone in the world. I had my job, and my three cats. Twenty-five and I was already an old cat lady. My family was gone. Sure, there were distant cousins, but no one I’d call just to say “Hi” to. My father had died two years before after a sudden heart attack. Mom had been sick since the summer before, and my baby sister, Jordan, had died before she got a chance to live. She got cancer at thirteen, fought for three years, and died after an experimental treatment failed. We were the kind of sisters who were closer than close. We looked alike, but had completely opposite personalities. It made for a few spirited arguments, but we always forgave each other and moved on. It broke my heart to see her suffer. She was strong like Mom. She wouldn’t give up until she had no choice. She was the fighter. I was the lover. I had the same fighting heart that my mother and sister had, but I was plagued with the ability to control it. I had the filter they did not possess. My filter worked in overdrive, though. So I had all these thoughts screaming at me and no way to get them out.

      I was good at compartmentalizing things away in my head for later analysis. I would have been content to lie in the yard until the sun rose, but the next day meant work. Murphy, Director of Child Protection Services Murphy and my boss’s boss offered me the week off, but I didn’t want it. A week to sit at home and mull over the fact that I was alone in such a big world? No, thank you. I would work, I would run, and I’d sleep. It wasn’t a bad life. I quite liked the privacy. My cats were all the company I cared to have. Oh, I loved those cats. Soleil, Luna, and Noir were their names. They were sisters that I’d adopted when I first moved out. Soleil is French for “sun,” and she got her name because she was the friendliest cat you’d ever meet. Luna, Latin for “moon,” was a little gray lap-cat. She was always calm and soothing. Noir, French for “black,” was the feisty one of the family. She and Soleil would play for hours chasing each other around the house while Luna sat on my lap and purred. We had a good life, and I didn’t care to see it change.

      Now, as I folded up the hung the quilt over a chair on the porch to dry and walked inside, I was reminded of my mother’s other request. “Don’t hold onto the house, Kate,” she’d said, “you don’t want to live here forever. Sell it and go to Seattle. I know you’ve always wanted to live there. Please do it, for me. I want you to have an amazing life. Don’t have any regrets.” I’d just kissed her hand and silently thanked her. She could see the emotions in my eyes. She’d always had that ability. She knew I was gracious and scared at the same time. I hated that she knew I was scared. It was my duty to keep her as happy as possible during her last days and here she was comforting me again. All I could do was arrange my face in as happy and confident a way that I knew how and let her live her last few hours in peace.

      I would make myself sell the house. I’d have to do it soon, though, because if I waited, it would never happen. I decided to go see a realtor the next day after work.

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      Surprisingly, I slept well that night. I’d come in house, fed the cats, put on ratty t-shirt, slipped between the covers, and fallen asleep before I could ever begin to think any more. I was grateful for that, but the next day, when I woke up to a banging on my door, I was slightly panicked. I stumbled to the door and jerked it open without a second thought. Director Murphy was standing there looking very worried.

 “What is it? What’s wrong?” I said when he didn’t say anything.

“I just wanted to make sure you were okay. I thought you said you were coming to work, and when you didn’t show and didn’t answer, I thought something might have happened.”

“What do you mean, I didn’t show? What time is it?”

“Kate, it’s seven thirty in the afternoon.”

“What? No.” I said thinking this was some cruel joke, then, looking at the hue of the sky behind him, I leaned into the door and moaned, “Damn, I’m sorry,” I said, “I don’t know what happened.” I wasn’t sure how a person over slept by twelve hours.

“Kate, you’ve had a hard week. I told you I wanted you to take some time off. I meant it. Please take off until next Friday. That’s a week and a half. Get things in order, figure out what you want to do, and then worry about work. Trussor and McKent have divided your cases. Your clients will be taken care of.”

“Murphy, I don’t want the time off. I appreciate the offer, really, but I need to work.”

“No, Kate. This isn’t an option. You can’t work under these circumstances. It’s not healthy… for you or your clients. I know you think you can handle it, and truthfully, I believe in you as much as you do, but I have to do what I think is best for you and your clients. Please don’t make this hard.”

He was right, even though I hated that fact.

“Okay.” I meant for it to sound sarcastic, or even just frustrated, but it came out weak and sleepy.

“See you in a week and a half, Kate.”

“Bye, Boss.”

He turned to leave and I closed the door behind him and rubbed my eyes.

“Really, Kate? How do you sleep that long?” I said to myself. I guess I had been getting less sleep than I realized. I turned the coffee maker on and went to stand under the shower.

      Thirty minutes, and two shriveled feet later, I got out and towel dried my hair. I made my coffee on autopilot and found a realtor in the yellow pages.

 

“This is Amber,” the too peppy voice on the other end said.

“Uhh, yeah. This is Kate Brennan. Are you the realtor I found in the yellow pages?”

“Yes! That’s me! What can I do for you?”

“I want to sell a house.”

“Okay, where is it located?”

“Just outside of Braewood.”

“Okay, if you are free tomorrow morning I can come by with a friend who can appraise it for you. No cost to find a price, and we can work it out from there.”

“Great, what time?”

“Nine-thirty okay?”

“Perfect, I’ll give you the address.”

“Okay, go ahead.”

“It’s 314 West Lily Street.”

“Fantastic! I will see you tomorrow then.”

“Thanks,” I said while hanging up.

      I sat for a minute with Luna on my lap trying to decide if I wanted to just go back to bed. I decided against it. I needed to get out of the house. It wasn’t like I had work to do. I put on a basic layer of makeup, nothing special, let my hair go natural, and pulled on some jeans and a sweater. It was late summer, but the nights were starting to cool off.

      I got in my car and drove into town. There was a little bar on the other side of the “city” that I liked to go to. It wasn’t usually crowded, and they had great scotch.

      When I walked in, Ted the bartender poured me a double. It’s bad when the bartender knows what you want just by the look on your face. That’s how he was though. He did that with everyone, and if he got you wrong, the next drink was on him. But he never missed. I sat down and thanked him.

“No problem, sorry to hear about your Mom. She was a wonderful lady.”

“Thanks, Ted. She was.”

That’s what annoyed me about Braewood. Everyone knew about everything. I was the only one at the grave-side, but somehow, the whole town knew.

      Oh well. I finished my drink and threw a five down. Ted nodded and I left. Where was I going though? Vacation sucks. The past six months had been spent at work and with Mom. I hadn’t done anything else. I’d forgotten how to live. My growling stomach told me I’d forgotten to eat too. Grocery shopping it is then, I decided.

      I walked down each isle, tossing whatever looked good into the cart. It was always a bad idea for me to grocery shop on an empty stomach. I got fruit and a few vegetables. A loaf of bread, peanut butter, roast beef from the deli, pepper jack cheese, orange juice, milk, coffee, some very unhealthy looking cookies, and cereal ended up in the cart as well. I got some spices and other cooking basics that I figured I would be out of since I had taken a liking to hospital sandwiches and pizza.

     

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      After putting away the groceries and eating half of what I bought I settled in front of the television. Not a very healthy day, but whatever, I was on vacation. It was eleven o’clock when my eyes started feeling heavy. How I was sleepy after that coma I’d experienced, I have no idea, but regardless, I peeled Luna from my lap and carried her with me to bed. She snuggled up to my waist and was immediately followed by Noir and Soleil. Noir and Soleil sleep against the headboard on the other side and Luna curls up in the little gap that happens when you sleep on your side with your knees pulled up. Noir gets mad if you wake her up, but Soleil will sometimes cozy up to my hair in the middle of the night.

This time, I remembered to set the alarm. No more sleeping the day away for me. I fell asleep almost instantly and I don’t think I moved all night. 

 

Author's Note

It ends kind of abruptly. Sorry about that. That would be where my muse stopped working. I'm working on the next part as you read this, and I'll hopefully have it up soon.

Thanks for reading!